Star Commentator Is Out as Christian College President After Scandal

While attending a conference last month, the president of the King’s College was spotted in the company of a woman other than his wife. At a typical institution of higher learning, a sighting like that might not have turned into a major controversy.

But the King’s College is not a typical institution of higher learning. It is a tiny Christian college based in a downtown Manhattan office building, whose mission statement articulates a “commitment to the truths of Christianity and a biblical worldview.”

Its president was Dinesh D’Souza, better known as the outspoken conservative commentator behind the caustic documentary “2016: Obama’s America.” And the ensuing scandal has cost him his job.

The King’s College announced Mr. D’Souza’s resignation on Thursday, two days after World Magazine, a Christian-oriented publication, reported that he had checked into a Comfort Suites in South Carolina in September with a woman he introduced as his fiancée, despite the fact that he was already married. The magazine reported that he filed for divorce the same day its reporter called to ask about the situation.

Mr. D’Souza, 51, angrily denounced the article, insisting that he and his wife had been separated for two years and that he and his traveling companion had stayed in separate hotel rooms. “I had no idea that it is considered wrong in Christian circles to be engaged prior to being divorced,” he wrote on FoxNews.com. “As a result of all this, and to avoid even the appearance of impropriety,” he wrote, he was suspending his engagement.

The college’s board of trustees met Wednesday, from noon until late into the night, then again on Thursday morning, according to the school’s newspaper, Empire State Tribune. At 12:30 p.m. students, gathered in a conference room at the school’s space on lower Broadway, were informed of the news: The board had accepted Mr. D’Souza’s resignation, and Andy Mills, the board chairman, would step in as interim president.

The school would not respond to requests for comment. But in a statement on its Web site, Mr. Mills said: “After careful consultation with the board and with Dinesh, we have accepted his resignation to allow him to attend to his personal and family needs. We thank him for his service and significant contribution to the college over the last two years.”

An announcement on Mr. D’Souza’s Web site read: “I am grateful for the past two years that I have spent as president of the King’s College. But now it is time to move on. My resignation will enable the King’s College to go forward without distraction. And it will also enable me to address personal matters in my life as well as to pursue new opportunities made possible by success of my recent book and film.”

Founded in 1938 in Belmar, N.J., the school moved to Westchester County, went bankrupt and closed in 1994. It was revived five years later by Campus Crusade for Christ, with a few hundred students in rented space in the Empire State Building, and recently moved downtown. Despite its strong evangelical identification, in 2010 it chose as its president Mr. D’Souza, who had come to evangelical Christianity late in life, after earlier identifying himself as a Roman Catholic.

He was a canny choice: the school actively sought to engage the secular world, offering academic courses in philosophy, the arts and business from a perch in the middle of New York City. Most of all, it was a small school that hoped to grow, and Mr. D’Souza was a celebrity, a best-selling author many times over who, by virtue of his presence, brought the school attention it might never otherwise have received.

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Dinesh D’Souza

“I feel like he really put us on the map,” said one student, Vanessa Cowan, 21. “We already have that spotlight; kids know who we are.”

Not everyone at the school had been pleased with Mr. D’Souza’s appointment. Marvin Olasky, the school’s provost, left. “It will come as no surprise to you that Dinesh D’Souza and I have different ideas about some things,” he was quoted as saying in Christianity Today.

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Both men played a role in Mr. D’Souza’s departure: Mr. Olasky is the editor in chief of World Magazine, the publication that broke the news of Mr. D’Souza’s marital circumstances. Mr. Smith reported and wrote the article.

“I did not seek out the story,” Mr. Smith said Thursday. “I happened to be a speaker at the same conference as Dinesh, and because the organizers of the conference knew that I knew Dinesh, when they were presented with this information they came to me.”

He added, “We made the determination that it was newsworthy because Dinesh is a prominent Christian leader and was engaged in behavior that would generally be considered unacceptable for Christian leaders. So I felt like I needed to verify with on-the-record sources that it was true, and when I did that, to write the article.”

Mr. D’Souza has been a lightning rod since his undergraduate days at Dartmouth College; since then he has written a dozen books and made countless media and public speaking appearances. But his recent foray into film has been his most visible undertaking yet. The film, an attack on President Obama, accuses him of imperiling the country by channeling the anti-colonialist beliefs of his father.

While some students relished having a recognizable name at the helm, others saw Mr. D’Souza’s extracurricular activities as a liability.

“I’ll be honest, I don’t think most of the students really like D’Souza,” he said. “The students are a lot more moderate than D’Souza.” He added, “It’s an outstanding academic school, and we have an unacademic reputation.”

Regardless of their opinions of Mr. D’Souza, students who were interviewed agreed that his family situation was relevant. “I do highly respect him for resigning,” Ms. Cowan said.

Randy Leonard contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on October 19, 2012, on Page A24 of the New York edition with the headline: Star Commentator Is Out as Christian College President After Scandal. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe